Presidential aspirant Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson has assured Filipinos that public funds will be spent to the development of remote villages and municipalities of the Philippines should he win in the 2022 polls.
Lacson said this would be part of his advocacy of reforming the national budget process.
The Partido Reporma chairman and standard bearer said that he plans to adopt a zero-based budgeting system to give government agencies some flexibility when it comes to spending taxpayers' money.
He noted that budget ceilings are being imposed by the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC), and often neglect the needs of smaller communities when they submit the National Expenditure Program (NEP) to Congress.
This results in the wastage of public funds due to unutilization or underspending, which Lacson said could reach to over P400 billion.
“Sa nakikita natin sa mahabang panahon—at ito, driven ako nito dahil sa year-in, year-out, mahilig ako magbusisi, mag-scrutinize ng national —‘yung ating General Appropriations Act napakaraming pera ang nasasayang (We have observed that for so many years—and I am driven to address this concern because year-in, year-out, I like to go over and scrutinize the national budget—a lot of money is being wasted under the General Appropriations Act),” Lacson said in a recent interview with One News.
“Halimbawa, DPWH, ito ‘yung gagastusin mo sa susunod na taon—P600-billion. You work within that budget ceiling. Sa akin, mali ‘yon eh. Pagka-budget ceiling, kamas-kamas ‘yung pagpaplano...Hindi dapat ganoon ang approach (For example, the Department of Public Works and Highways receives P600 billion to spend for the next year. You work within that budget ceiling. To me, that’s wrong. When you impose a budget ceiling, the planning will be done in haste. That should not be our approach),” he said.
Lacson explained that zero-based budgeting is a method of financial planning in which all expenses must be justified for each new fiscal period. It is the same process applied by the leaders of most successful private corporations, he added.
He also said that he would encourage more citizens, through their barangay officials to participate in their local development councils and in the regional chapters of DBCC so they can propose useful projects that can be included in the national budget.
This way, the system would be more organized and irregularities over the practice of budget insertions would be addressed, he said.
“Minsan ang mga nagbibigay na ng mga ini-insert o ino-augment, ‘yong ina-amend sa budget, galing sa contractor. Hindi ‘yung talagang binalangkas ng local development council, kundi contractor driven (Sometimes what happens is that the contractors are the ones suggesting which provisions will be inserted, augmented, or amended in the budget. They are not what the local development council planned for but contractor driven),” Lacson said.
Lacson will be seeking presidency in 2022, with Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III as his running mate.